The present invention generally relates to material handling on scaffolds. More specifically, the present invention relate, to a method of moving material by conveyor along a scaffolding platform that is capable of being raised and lowered with respect to a support surface, such as the ground.
Scaffolding systems are commonly used when maintaining, repairing, or building structural walls, such as masonry walls of buildings, and towers, such as radio or communications towers. On some types of scaffolding systems, the platform that carries the workers and any needed materials is capable of being selectively moved upward or downward, relative to the surface, such as the ground surface, that supports the scaffolding system. While these advances that permit more flexible placement of a platform with respect to the portion of the wall or tower being maintained or constructed are beneficial, further advances are necessary with respect to material handling techniques on these scaffolding platforms.
These scaffolding systems often have platforms that range in length up to 50 or 100 feet or more. Efficient material placement becomes increasingly critical as the length of these platforms increase. For example, when a fork lift places one stack of construction or maintenance materials on the scaffolding platform, workers must then distribute these materials at the required work positions along the length of the platform. This is inefficient from a labor standpoint because one or more workers may be assigned the single task of moving the materials by hand to the required work position. Besides being inefficient, this raises potential safety and health issues due to the requisite lifting and carrying activities on the work platform where walking space is usually at a premium.
Also, the amount of materials that can be positioned on these elongate platforms is limited by weight capacity limitations of the scaffolding systems. For example, though the individual support structures of these scaffolding systems sometimes have capacities of 15,000 pounds or more, the portions of the scaffolding platforms located between the support structures typically have capacities somewhat less than that of the platform proximate the support structure. Indeed, as the length of the platform increases, the capacity of the platform between the support structures typically decreases. Therefore, as the length of the platform increases, the need for more efficient material placement along the length of the platform likewise increases. These platform weight restrictions, especially the decreasing weight capacity of these platforms with increasing length, illustrate why it is not possible to simply create more individual stacks of materials along the length of the platform for purposes of more efficiently distributing the materials with respect to individual work stations on the platform.
Thus, a general need exists for a method of more efficiently placing construction and maintenance materials along the length of scaffolding platforms. This advance is needed to reduce safety and health issues arising from material placement on platforms and to reduce labor requirements during material placement. This advance is also needed to optimize use of the available weight capacities of scaffolding platforms, especially as platform lengths increase and weight-bearing capacities are reduced on the lengthened platforms.